Keeping a New Year’s resolution past mid January is HARD

I admit; I made New Year’s resolutions this year. Real ones, not silly ones.

You’ll find out more when I’m confident I’m going to stick with it. It’s not mysterious…. I’m just so aware that most resolutions fail that I didn’t want to broadcast my intentions too widely and have to admit shame-faced failure.

I’m not the only one though; according to mutual www.shepherdsfriendly.co.uk a huge 80% of resolutions are packed in within the first month.

Why is to so hard to stick to a New Year’s resolution?

Looking back, the majority of my previous resolutions were too general, I wasn’t really motivated to actually do something (or stop doing it) or I wasn’t really ever intending on sticking with them in the first place. You can tell someone isn’t really going on a New Year New Me diet when their first Ocado shop of January has three bottles of Sauvignon Blanc, a box of half price Quality Street and a bag of Kettle Chips in it.

So how do you make sure that you stick to your New Year’s resolutions?

According to the infographic below, it’s totally possible to stick to your New Year’s resolutions using a five step formula!

Firstly, you need to set a goal. Don’t be too general; we need specifics. Lose weight might be a fine notion, but how much, and by when? Saving up is great, but how much and when and how are you going to save it?

Think about why you want to achieve it and what your motivator is, so you can keep this in mind when times are getting tough (and they will, if it’s a resolution worth making!). If it’s so you can WOW your old school friends at a reunion by being in shape, or so you can afford to go travelling, have this in mind the whole time!

Next, you need to prioritise. Do you HAVE to go to that party, knowing that you’ll end up breaking your new year’s resolution not to drink? Can you rearrange seeing your friends for the day time? If you’re saving up, is that expensive Stag do a good idea?

You also need to track how you’re doing; apps like My Fitness Pal are great to keep a record of calories taken in and weight lost. This will act as a motivator when you can see how far you’ve come!

Finally, if it’s not working out, amend your resolution before you ditch it completely! Not losing weight or saving as fast as you’d like? Adjust your goal, give yourself longer to achieve it.

Good luck keeping your New Year’s resolutions!

This post was written in collaboration with Shepherd’s Friendly mutual.